Saturday Primer

Riley LaChance will lead Vandy into Bud Walton Arena tonight to face Arkansas. The Hogs, who are mired in a 2-10 ATS slide, were listed as seven-point home favorites early this morning.

Published on Saturday, 2/10/18, at 12:20 a.m. Eastern.

Gamblers have a stacked menu to work with Saturday in college hoops. All of Saturday’s televised games are listed at the bottom of this page. Here are some quick-hit links, picks, thoughts and more…

–My Gators play at South Carolina today at noon Eastern on CBS. As of early this morning, they were listed as 2.5-point favorites. The Gamecocks have beaten UF in four of the past five head-to-head meetings. For all you need to know about this SEC showdown, check out the latest from long-time UF beat reporter Chris Harry.

—Nebraska is on an incredible 13-1 ATS run in its past 14 games. Tim Miles’s squad was installed as a nine-point home favorite vs. Rutgers early this morning. The Cornhuskers are 12-1 SU and 9-2 ATS at home this season. The only outright defeat was a one-point loss to Kansas. They take on the Scarlet Knights at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on the Big Ten Network.

—Indiana covered in its eighth consecutive home game Friday by sweeping the season series from Minnesota with an 80-56 win as a 6.5-point favorite at Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The Gophers are now 4-14 against the spread in their last 18 games, while the Hoosiers are 13-4-1 ATS in their last 18. Like I said on Games Galore 33, Richard Pitino is probably going to take a pink slip at season’s end.

—Rhode Island remained undefeated in Atlantic-10 play and easily covered the spread in Friday’s home win over Davidson.

—Villanova will be in bounce-back mode for today’s noon Eastern home tip vs. Butler on FOX. The Wildcats, who lost as 16-point home favorites to St. John’s earlier this week, will be without Phil Booth (hand) and Eric Paschall (concussion). Paschall is averaging 10.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

—Kansas has won 11 games in a row over Baylor. Furthermore, the Jayhawks are 10-1 ATS in their past 11 trips to Waco. The Bears will host KU on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on CBS. As of early this morning, most books had Bill Self’s squad favored by 1.5 points.

–The ‘under’ is 10-2 in Georgia’s last 12 games. Mark Fox’s job is in serious jeopardy going into a rematch with Auburn on the SEC Network at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. UGA allowed a 14-point halftime lead to get away in a 79-65 loss at Auburn as a nine-point underdog three weeks ago. Bryce Brown, Auburn’s leading scorer (16.6 PPG), is ‘questionable’ with a shoulder injury sustained in an 81-80 home loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday night. Brown sparked the comeback win over UGA last month by scoring a game-high 28 points. As of early this morning, most spots had Bruce Pearl’s team favored by 4.5 points.

–Fox’s prize recruit in the 2017 class was freshman forward Rayshaun Hammonds, who played at least 20 minutes in 19 of Georgia’s first 20 games. Hammonds scored in double figures in seven of the Bulldogs’ first 14 contests. But the 4-star recruit has apparently hit the ‘Freshman Wall’ we hear about so often. Hammonds has played a total of 17 minutes in UGA’s last three games. Why, you ask? Well, the dude can’t throw it in the ocean. Hammonds has merely made 2-of-22 shots from the field in Georgia’s last five outings and he’s 4-of-32 (15.0%) in the past eight UGA contests.

–Vandy is 5-1 ATS in its past six games. The lone non-cover was a 12-point loss at Auburn last Saturday. Bryce Drew’s team closed as an 11.5-point road underdog, but the Tigers opened as 13.5-point favorites late last Friday. As of early this morning, the Commodores were seven-point underdogs for tonight’s game at Arkansas.

—Ole Miss, a 4.5-point underdog at LSU, is winless in seven previous road assignments. The Rebels, who are 2-5 ATS on the road, have dropped four consecutive games both SU and ATS. The guess here is that LSU star freshman Tremont Waters will bounce back after a poor shooting night at Florida earlier this week. Waters hit only 3-of-15 FGAs and 1-of-9 attempts form 3-point land in the 73-64 loss.

—Alabama was a 2.5-point home underdog vs. Tennessee this morning. Avery Johnson’s got a big win at Florida last weekend, but then it lost a close one at Mississippi St., which has won all of its home games except for against Auburn, which rallied late to win at The Hump. The Crimson Tide is 10-2 SU and 6-4 ATS at home, while the Volunteers are 6-2 SU and 7-1 ATS in eight road outings. The ‘under’ is on a 10-0 run for the Tide. The ‘under’ has been a serious money maker in ‘Bama games, cashing at a 17-6 clip overall with a 10-1 record in its home tilts at Coleman Coliseum. Alabama has won outright, beating Auburn and Oklahoma, in its only two home underdog situations this year.

—Virginia (23-4 SU,16-4 ATS) is undefeated in 14 home games with a 7-3 spread record. Most spots this morning were using UVA -12 for tonight’s 6:15 p.m. home game vs. Va. Tech. There was an offshore with total of 130 points. The ‘over’ is 14-6 overall for the Hokies, who are 4-3 both SU and ATS in seven road assignments. The ‘under’ is 16-5 overall for UVA, 8-1 in its games that have had totals in the 130s. When these teams met in Blacksburg on Jan. 3, the Cavaliers absolutely ran Buzz Williams’s squad out of its own gym in a 78-52 open-hand pimplsap. Tony Bennett’s bunch covered the spread by 22.5 points since it was laying only 3.5. The ‘under’ is 3-1 in the past four of this in-state rivalry.

–Pitt will play host to Louisville on Sunday afternoon. The Panthers are horrible in Kevin Stallings’ second season at the helm, but they’d covered the number in five straight until a recent 0-2 ATS slump. The play in Pitt games has been the ‘under,’ which has cashed tickets at a frenetic pace (17-3 overall and 8-1 in their home games). Pitt was already deplorable offensively but when Ryan Luther (12.7 PPG, 10.1 RPG & 2.8 APG) went down with a season-ending foot injury in mid-December, things went even further south. Stallings’ team averages only 63.1 PPG, which ranks No. 342 in the nation.

–Bettors should star paying attention to the Montana Grizzlies, who are unbeaten in the Big Sky. They improved to 10-0 SU and 7-0 ATS at home with Thursday’s 80-60 win over Portland St. as eight-point favorites.

–If you missed the chaotic end of Boise St.‘s comeback win at New Mexico a few nights ago, you missed quite the finish. When it was over, I was watching live as this kid at the end of the UNM bench was going nuts on the officials. See the tweet below and click ‘AddisonWalton’ for pure comedy, especially the little dude’s red gloves!